In the custom clothing industry, the measurement of the distance across the back and between the shoulders of an individual, known as either the shoulder-width measurement or the point-to-point measurement, is one of the defining characteristics in custom tailored menswear. It can be difficult to obtain a correct Point to Point measurement, unless customers have an existing jacket from which to measure, and usually requires the clothier to have extensive training or experience in obtaining the measurement using a tape measure.
In the absence of an existing jacket, clothiers have been required to use other measurements obtained on the customer to derive the point-to-point measurement. In such an event, the point-to-point measurement is most often derived by using charts and other measurements on the customer. Such a process is more of an estimate, rather than an exact measurement. As a result, the point-to-point measurement may be slightly off, requiring the sleeve length measurement to be adjusted during second or later fittings of the custom tailored clothing. Making adjustments can be a laborious and costly process, the avoidance of which is highly desired, as an accurate fit can be extremely important for custom clothing.
Furthermore, the measuring instruments that are available to clothiers in the custom clothing industry tend to be somewhat large and unwieldy, thereby reducing their portability and adding to the burden of a clothier who wishes to use the instruments to conduct measurements at different locations. Clearly, currently available tailoring measurement tools and techniques are less than perfect.